Posted on 04/26/2021 7:46:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Bernie Sanders incessantly whines (lies) on Twitter 24×7 about the travesty visited on America’s minimum wage workers by the evil, wealth-hoarding Republican Party, with the rest of the Democrat Party standing behind him sneering, in unison: “What Bernie said!”
Yup, in the politically predisposed eyes of the left, raising the minimum wage to $15 is the magic elixir for all that ails minimum wage workers. Yeah, no. Not even close.
As I reported earlier today, despite protestations to the contrary from the left, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that doubling the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.00 an hour would raise the average income of families below the poverty line by $589 per year — roughly 1% of their total income. Um, Bernie?
Some of the primary reasons why the projected increase is so low are as follows:
The vast bulk of people in poverty work very little or not at all. In 2018, only 27% of adults in poverty were in the labor force for at least half of the year. This includes part-time workers and those who were simply looking for work.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that doubling the minimum wage would destroy about 1.4 million jobs, and many of these would be lost by poor people. This is because “when the cost of employing low-wage workers goes up,” some employers will replace them with machinery, technology, and higher-wage workers.
The total income of households in poverty is several times greater than commonly reported. The poverty/income statistics widely used by governments and media outlets exclude many goods and services that poor people receive from governments and charities, like free health insurance, Food Stamps, housing, utilities, preschool, college, and cell phones.
And, Bernie? Dude has become a caricature of his always-angry self, as he continues to spew the same crap he spewed in his bestseller, which he can thank for at least one of his three homes and however many million dollars of his net worth — given that he’s never worked a real job in his life. Then again, a guy who combs his hair with a balloon?
A $15 minimum wage is supported by:
89% of African Americans
87% of Democrats
76% of Latino Americans
73% of Asian Americans
62% of all Americans
It’s time for Congress to stop listening to greedy CEOs and start listening to workers who are tired of making starvation wages https://t.co/uZ0hPJtndo
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 25, 2021
Yeah, yeah, yeah — it’s “time to stop listening to greedy CEOS and start listening to workers who are tired of making starvation wages.” And, Bern? as Business Insider recently reported, a McDonald’s franchise owner in Florida is paying people $50 — just to show up for a job interview — and guess what? He is still struggling to find applicants.
Maybe these people “making starvation wages” should just get off their asses and write a bestseller or two. Right, Bernie? Please sit down.
More followup on this by @Kate_H_Taylor: https://t.co/4nfrSG8kTO
— Dan Nunn (@danyay) April 18, 2021
As reported by the Insider:
Blake Casper, the franchisee who owns the restaurant, told Insider that a general manager and supervisor came up with the idea for the interview reward after he told them to “do whatever you need to do” to hire workers.
“At this point, if we can’t keep our drive-thrus moving, then I’ll pay $50 for an interview,” said Casper, who owns 60 McDonald’s restaurants in the Tampa, Florida area.
Now that his business is booming, Casper told the Insider, “It’s a perfect storm right now.”
“You’ve got a lot of people with a lot of money, and they’re out there shopping,” he added. “And then, on the flip side, we’re scrambling for help.”
Casper said that, to his surprise, offering people $50 simply to come in for an interview still has not convinced many people to apply for jobs. He has found more success with referral programs, signing bonuses, and allowing people to apply via text message.
Last week alone, his 60 restaurants hired 115 new workers.
The labor shortage is also forcing Casper and other franchisees to raise wages. He told the Insider he is considering raising starting wages from $12 — $3 above Florida’s minimum wage — to $13, in an effort to attract more employees, although he’s not sure that would get the job done, either.
“The biggest challenge out there is the federal government and the state government are going to continue with this unemployment, because that is truly creating the incentive to not work right now.
“And, how do you blame somebody? You can make more money on unemployment — and so, we’ve got to be at least above that.”
And there it is, gang.
“The federal government and state government(?) are truly creating an incentive to not work right now.” Welcome to Democrat ideology 101, Mr. Casper.
The Democrat Party will never understand minimum wage jobs — no matter their level — how they fit into the lives of most people who have them, as well as the U.S. economy.
“Blake Casper, the franchisee who owns the restaurant, told Insider that a general manager and supervisor came up with the idea for the interview reward after he told them to “do whatever you need to do” to hire workers.”
Sounds like it’s a supply and demand problem with a solution.
places having a hard time finding enough lower skilled workers
unemployment + the extra $300 a week means many make more doing nothing
the extra $300 a week at this point is a backdoor way to raise the min wage IMO
If you pay them $50 to show up, how good of an employed you expect them to be?
"...$50.00 interview bonus..."
I believe $12 to $14/hour is the going low wage range in my part of Florida.
It might be possible to go to $15/hour here with exception factors.
The employer status factors might be:
A. $1/hour off for unincorporated/Chapter S unaffiliated[i.e. not a franchise] businesses and persons,
B. $1/hour off if such businesses/persons operate from just one location(excluding equipment/supply storage),
C. $1/hour off if such businesses/persons had no other direct employees except the substantive owner(s) during the same employer standardized hired employee pay period.
The employee status factors might be:
A. $1/hour off if the employee claimed to be unemployed on his/her written job application,
B. $1/hour off if the employee claimed to be under age 18 on his/her written job application,
C. $1/hour off if the employee claimed to have a criminal/drug court record on his/her written job application.
These factors allow for a quite appropriate amount of targeted wage flexibility in the labor market.
The maximum reduction for any employee would be $3/hour.
The $7.25/hour minimum was set about 12 years ago.
Prices have about doubled in those 12 years, so to compensate for inflation the $7.25/hour would be about $14.50/hour.
Unfortunately, many small businesses have been weakened by Amazon, so they can’t offer pay in-line with inflation.
I am not opposed to this
Consider, you apply. You invest some of your time looking for work. You fill out their form, provide them personal information they they may or may not even look at. You did this on your dime
They now want you to take time out of your day, travel to their site, dress and present yourself appropriately and answer questions for them. All this on a CHANCE they may offer you a job
Being compensated for performing this for an employer seems reasonable. You do what is asked, at the end of the interview you at least were paid for your time.
Many small businesses needed targeted exceptions since they can’t use labor as efficiently as Amazon or Costco can.
Costco pays $15 an hour.
Burger joints around town start at $14 an hour and Chick-fil-a pays $15.00 an hour.
The minimum wage has been set by the market.
Those places of business that do not match those wages will fail.
They don’t pay enough for tattoos.
I miss the days when Car Dealers gave you a $50 giftcard for test driving a car.
I don’t remember ever getting one, but at least I could have.
same with guns, I am starting to wonder how long it would be before I can say the same thing.
“The minimum wage has been set by the market.”
As it should be. It’s not the government’s business to mandate wages.
$50 — just to show up for a job interview
I think I’ll show up for the interview but decline the job offer
unemployment + the extra $300 a week means many make more doing nothing
the extra $300 a week at this point is a backdoor way to raise the min wage IMO
A guy on another thread did the math and in his state (can't remember which) unemployment plus the extra federal $300 a week came out to almost $17 an hour assuming a 40 hour work week. There might be a few people that would take a job out of pride, but most will choose to "earn" $17 an hour for sitting on their couch over going to work, wearing a mask all day, and making $12-15 an hour. Minimum wage workers are usually pretty adept at figuring out all the angles of milking government benefits, they know all the ways of getting the freebies. It's simple economics and until the government stops paying people more to stay home than they can make working it's going to be almost impossible to fill minimum wage jobs.
I’d say the government has mandated wages. I’m hearing stories of people who work at box stores actively trying to get terminated so they can collect unemployment due to the increase in money.
I guess their issue is not being creative enough to collect the free flowing money yesterday.
We just interviewed for a position we would typically get 30 applicants (entry level), we got 6. Of those 6, 4 were relatives of current employees who know the future wage/benefits possible due to internal hiring preferences.
You are correct on all counts.
My wife and I went out to dinner tonight, nothing special, just a local pizza joint. One waiter was covering about 10 tables and working his ass off. Obviously they were short staffed. Paid in cash and put in a 50% tip. Guy was very thankful. He is hustling and I guarantee he is pulling in more in tips than he would be getting with all the benefits.
This was interesting as today I was out doing some car business when I came upon the local jogging/bike trail. There was a virtual line of late teens to mid 20s out jogging and or biking. I guess these are the cannot find a job bunch (s).
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